


Rats, Rogues and Routers

by FaerieChild



Series: Spooks - Bond crossover universe [3]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Sherlock (TV), Spooks | MI-5
Genre: #Bondlock, #JAQ, #crossover, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 04:13:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5729104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaerieChild/pseuds/FaerieChild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Q needs a ratter for the tunnels, Ruth meets Bill Tanner and Sir Harry Pearce is a very over protective father to his darling Scarlett.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rats, Rogues and Routers

**Author's Note:**

> Rats die in this fic. I'm just putting that up front. I have borrowed the fanon version of Alec Trevelyan from the wonderful Kryptaria. (Go and read her stuff, it is amazing and wonderful).

The Quartermaster of MI6 sighed and shook his head as he looked at the pathetic remains of the router cable. It was the third time this week it had been chewed right through. Most privations of the tunnels Q could put up with for the benefits of solitude and silence to get on with his work. James affectionately called it his underground lair and lovingly joked about Q taking over the world one day. Q had honestly thought about it but had decided it was difficult enough getting a day off as it was.

The wi-fi router, however, was one thing he could not do without. There was only one thing for it: the rats would have to go.

~

It was Saturday morning in a grey and sleepy London and Ruth Evershed stood in the hallway on her way in the door and pinged one of Harry's braces and leaned up to kiss him. He stood beside her with a cup of coffee dressed in his trousers, shirt and braces. His jacket still sat hung over a chair in the kitchen and his tie was shoved in the glove compartment of his car. In ten minutes he would be leaving himself to go to the Grid but Ruth wasn't going to work that morning, she had something else just as important to do.

Harry smiled warmly and kissed her back. He would miss her today because Ruth was not going into work that day. She had something much more important to do.

“She'll be fine, Harry.”

“I'm still not sure about this.”

“Scarlett is in the best hands.”

“Of course,” Harry nodded and then kneeled down to fuss over Scarlett and kiss her goodbye. When he stood up he pressed his lips together making Ruth laugh at the worried expression on his face as she kissed him goodbye and closed the door on him.

Scarlett Pearce was a Jack Russell terrier with a happy, gregarious disposition and she was Harry's darling. The happy little dog trotted along eagerly at Ruth's side as they made their way to the tube. Scarlett got plenty of attention and every so often she yipped happily as someone fussed over her. Their destination that day was a secret location, an underground bunker that had recently been converted into the lair of the Quartermaster of MI6. After a small incident with the main building, the man known as Q had decamped to secret tunnels underground and after doing extensive work on cabling, damp and setting the entire place up as a Research and Development lab, he was reluctant to move out again with the rest of the service just as he had finally got the place up to scratch.

There was, however, one small problem. Rats. Rats and sewers went together like bread and butter and it wouldn't have been such an issue if the amount of cabling being eaten wasn't quite so serious which was why a certain family member was going to be adopted out for a few hours, or a few days, to deal with the problem.

They were met at the door by a white, balding man of average height who introduced himself as Bill Tanner. He shook Ruth's hand and Ruth was surprised to discover he was really quite senior in the Secret Intelligence Service and, apparently, on good terms with her brother.

“Bond speaks very highly of you.”

“I wasn't aware he talked about me!” Ruth said.

“Oh, not at work much. Socially. In the pub, that sort of thing.”

“James goes to the pub?”

Bill Tanner smiled a warm, friendly smile. “I'll have to invite you along some time. I know Eve has been dying to meet you.”

“Eve?” Ruth queried.

Bill chuckled. “Eve Moneypenny. Another colleague. She rather takes after Mansfield.”

“James must love that.”

“They have their moments,” Tanner agreed with a secretive smile. "Shall we?" 

 

Tanner led Ruth from a nondescript street through a grubby doorway in a brick wall and down a set of damp, concrete stairs with poor strip lighting. They emerged into a brick built hallway which took a series of turns before emerging through a set of double doors into a large, dry room that had the air of a redeveloped industrial space. Ruth wondered if it had been some sort of storage facility once upon a time. She knew Harry would probably know. Underground London was crawling with tunnels and spaces that varied in age from centuries-old to cold war era and even some more modern than that and simply because of his job, Harry's knowledge of London was near encyclopaedic.

Once inside, Ruth took a moment to scan the room. There was a large area for dealing with weapons. There was a large desk piled high with books on everything from computers to physics to engineering and microbiology. There were boxes of hardware and cables and bits of gun sights and some highly specialised equipment that took centre stage at the desk where the Quartermaster himself was working. To one side sat a battered, duct-taped laptop littered with faded stickers and a few yards away towards the other end of the room was a radiator beside which sat a cat bed, a litter tray and some kibble and water.

At the sound of the door opening, the Quartermaster didn't move but kept peering down the microscope he was using until he was finished what he was doing. Finally the Quartermaster pulled away and looked up and when he saw who his visitors were the corners of his mouth turned up.

“Ruth,” Q nodded his head. “How very good to see you.”

Ruth couldn't help but smile back. Q was a unique man. Intelligent, mild-mannered and quiet but beneath his unassuming nature lay a quick wit and sassy tongue that had earned him the respect of every agent in the Service. His technological innovations had become legendary across the intelligence world and his activities always held the edge of danger that only a former enemy hacker could engender after switching sides.

Unlike everyone else in the world of espionage, however, Ruth had first become acquainted with Q not through her line of work but through her family. Her half-brother James Bond had begun a relationship with his Quartermaster and to everyone's surprise they were not only oddly well-suited to each other but seemed to be sticking it out.

“Harry sends his compliments.”

“Likewise,” Q's eyes twinkled and after looking over Ruth for long enough to check that she was well, he let his eyes fall to her companion, waiting patiently at heel. Scarlett's chest seemed to puff out under the scruitiny. “Scarlett Pearce, I presume?” Q asked the little Jack Russell. 

Scarlett barked once in acknowledgement.

“Pleased to meet you, Scarlett. My name is Q.”

Ruth stifled a giggle at the serious expression on the Quartermaster's face. There was no doubt that Scarlett was intelligent but to see the Quartermaster of MI6 treating her as full-blown operative seemed to be doing things to Scarlett's ego. At her side, Scarlett's head rose half an inch as she sat as tall and proud as her petite stature would allow. “As you're on secondment and will be working independently, I had a name badge made up for you,” Q told the little dog and then glanced at Tanner who pulled a plastic ID holder out of his pocket and kneeled down to the floor. With all the gentleness of a new father, Bill Tanner reached out and clipped the ID tag onto Scarlett's existing collar. “Naturally it has a fast-release mechanism in case of any entanglements and I'll also need an iris reading so I can set the biometric readers accordingly.”

“Biometric readers?” Ruth asked.

“So she can get around. I'll be quite busy, I'm afraid. You're quite welcome to stay here but Scarlett will have to work independently in the tunnels. How does Sir Harry feel about nanoblood?”

Ruth shook her head.

Q wilted slightly, and then picked himself up. “Trackers?”

“She's got a microchip.”

Scarlett yipped again. Ruth didn't put it past her to know exactly what was going on. Her tail was already wagging eagerly and it didn't look like the cat kibble left in the bowl would last very long the moment Scarlett was given permission to leave.

Q sighed heavily, “I suppose that will have to do. Thank you, Bill." Tanner politely made his retreat, talking about a meeting with M while Ruth looked at her watch and wondered whether she would have time to go into town. "Its fine Ruth. Enjoy your day off.Scarlett and I will be quite alright from here.”

~

Some hours later, after treating herself to a wander round the shops and a soothing visit to evensong at Saint Paul's, Ruth waited for Harry at a local cafe near their work and together they made their way across the river to Vauxhall Cross.

Ruth tried to reassure him. Scarlett had looked so eager. Q would surely use every precaution. She could look after herself.

“I don't know, Ruth,” Harry shook his head, “Rats can be nasty business.”

“Scarlett can look after herself,” Ruth tried to reassure him, “She's tougher than she looks.”

“Tough as old boots,” Harry agreed. “Still...”

Ruth hooked her arm through Harry's and settled in a little closer at his side as they walked. “Q made her up an ID badge.”

“Did he?” Harry looked surprised and, if anything, a little moved.

“Do you know, he brings his cats to work?”

“Scarlett's never been around cats. Apart from Fidget.”

“Q assures me they're much too busy bossing 006 around to bother with Scarlett.”

“I wonder sometimes how much they know, our pets. Do you think they know what's going on?”

“Oh yes,” Ruth exclaimed. “Of course!”

Sir Harry Pearce didn't look entirely convinced but he loved Ruth and he trusted her and so just this once, he put his heart in her hands.

 

In an underground lair, near Vauxhall Cross, the Quartermaster of MI6 looked in wonder at the pile of corpses on the floor. Beside him, 007 nodded his head in wondrous approval.

“Ok, that's impressive.”

“Natural ratters, Jack Russell's,” Q stood up a little straighter. “Ruth's idea was brilliant.”

“This was Ruth's idea?”

“Who else do you imagine could persuade Sir Harry Pearce to second his dog across the river.”

“Bitch,” James corrected.

“Sorry?”

“Scarlett's a bitch, actually.”

Q tilted his head in that particular way that let James know that Q was particularly exasperated with him. “007, I'm not a complete idiot.”

James Bond put his hands in his pocket to hide his reaction to the Quartermaster's sniping. James always found it strangely erotic and he laughed an open, warm laugh at Q's reaction.

Q tutted, which seemed the thing to do around Bond when you didn't know how else to respond. At their feet, Scarlett responded to the sound of tiny pattering feet and shot out into the tunnels again. The sound of her petite paws pounding the floor retreated. There was a moment's silence and then they heard her again, panting heavily as she dragged in a dead rat that was nearly as big as her and added it to the pile, wagging her tail and looking to the humans for approval at her good work.

“Double-o-Scarlett,” Bond quipped and then hunkered down to fuss over her ears. 

Q looked over at his boyfriend and when his eyes met Bond's, Q's eyes twinkled mischievously. They generally had a no kissing at work rule, but Q thought they might shortly have given in just this once had they not been so rudely interrupted by Alec Trevelyan, code name 006.

“Absolutely bloody carnage, my Darling!” Alec grinned. “Bloody great bloodbath. God, I love that dog.”

"Bitch," Q and James said simultaneously and then burst out laughing leaving Alec a muddle of confusion. Behind him, two cats each held a dead mouse in their mouths and added them to the pile. Scarlett eyed these creatures warily, who trotted around like they owned the place. The first time she had tried to chase them, but the humans had been very angry at that. She supposed for the joy of chasing rats all day, she could probably live with them. 

~

Ruth led the way in, through the grubby door and down the stairs. She pressed the buzzer and went through Q's iris-recognition security measures. Ruth knew that Q had probably been tracking them all over London, he certainly had the capabilities. It might look like an easy place to break into but that was the magic of the Quaretmaster. He had all sorts of ingenious ways of disguising his technology. It wasn't just anyone who could walk into this place and Ruth felt strangely privileged, even as she laughed at Harry's twitchiness.

“I'm worried about her,” He pouted.

Ruth patted his hand. “I bet she's been a gem. Come on.”

They were met by a group of people. Q and James they knew, the other man was introduced to them simply as Alec. He seemed to have a close if somewhat childish bond to James and neither Ruth nor Harry knew quite what to make of him.

“Sir Harry,” Q greeted him formally. “I believe I owe you.”

“Everything alright?”

In the background the one calling himself Alec burst out laughing. “Alright? The little terror's rounded up half the rats in London. Christ, I could use her on a mission sometimes. Quick bite to the bollocks, get past security-”

“Alec!” Q snapped. “Behave!”

Alec bit his tongue. “Bloody dictator. First you wouldn't let me blow up that oil tanker, then you veto my Kremlin thing and now you're turning down my equipment requests.”

“What Kremlin thing?” Harry's ears perked up.

“Nothing important.” Q's smile was reassuring but Ruth could bet that those words would be file away in the back of Harry's mind for future notice. In the end they were led through a series of tunnels and server rooms to a small boiler room in the back which had been set up with food, water and a dog bed in the warmest corner of the room.

Sir Harry Pearce's heart softened, he kneeled down and his beloved Scarlett ran up to him and jumped up to start licking his face. He looked her over carefully, checking her for any scratches or bites but she looked whole and hale and happy at seeing her master.

“I should probably warn you at this point...that tongue has killed at least three dozen rats today,” Q chirped.

Harry very carefully pushed Scarlett away just far enough to stop her licking him. He winced. “Do you think I'll get rabies or black plague?”

Q tilted his head and winced. “Both?”

Ruth and James looked at each other, both finding the remark rather amusing. Harry, less so. It was then, as he carefully avoided Scarlett's eager tongue, that Harry noticed the ID and took pains to read it. 

“I'm afraid they adopted her,” Q began, “The double-o's. On account of her kill rate.”

“00S?”

“Its just an honorary thing, obviously.”

“You've turned her!” 

Ruth had never heard Harry so hurt.

“Its a good thing, Harry. He set up the iris recognition software he has for the cats for Scarlett as well,” Ruth explained.

Harry looked uncertain and, if anything, slightly angry. “Under no circumstances will my dog be working for MI6, is that clear?!”

Even James Bond winced at the sharp rebuke. Ruth tried a soft 'Harry...' but nothing would change his mind until Scarlett looked up at her master with such a mournful, woebegone expression that even Sir Harry's hard heart was moved.

“Scarlett,” Harry tried to reason with her.

Scarlett whined pathetically.

Sir Harry stared her down but Scarlett's expression left no room for doubt. Finally, emotionally blackmailed by his own dog, Harry Pearce gave in. “Oh, blood hell!”

In the doorway, Alec Trevelyan gave out a loud whoop. Scarlett Pearce was let down on the ground and did a few leaping circles of joy.

“I think Alec would be a suitable liason officer, given Ruth's busy schedule,” Q proposed, “What do you say?”

Harry's eyes darkened menacingly as he stared at Alec who wondered what he had done to earn the wrath of the head of Counter-Terrorism at MI5.

“Or, I could ask Eve Moneypenny...”

“Alec will be fine, I'm sure,” Sir Harry suddenly backed down. “Good god, Scarlett and Eve could probably bring down the kingdom together if they so wished. Is it true she has a new girlfriend?”

James Bond shrugged innocently. “Haven't the faintest, Harry."

"Really? There was a rumour going round about some french woman. Assassin's daughter."

"No idea," James stepped forwards and patted Harry on the shoulder, hoping he would drop the whole thing. "What do you say to a trip to the pub?”

“How about The George?” Ruth suggested looked around the group. “We could introduce you to everyone.” Q looked slightly afraid in a way that made Ruth smile at his adorableness and she fell in beside him. "They'll love you, Teddy."

"Don't call me that."

"Sherrinford?"

"No."

"Archibald?"

"Don't you dare!" Q pointed threateningly at Ruth who had the temerity to laugh in his face.

Together the group started to pick up their things and head toward the exit. Q shut down his computer and picked up his parka.

Ruth shook her head at the man who she suspected was going to be around for some time. She liked him, she honestly did, and he was so good for James. “Why is the man who's got the most deadly assassins in the Commonwealth under his thumb afraid of a few colleagues? They'll love you.”

James cleared his throat pointedly. Hopefully.

“You, they'll put up with,” Ruth told her brother in no uncertain terms, “Just don't shag any one.”

“What about me?” Alec spoke up, an air of curiosity in his voice after Ruth's statement.

“Oh, you can shag him. You don't count as 'anyone',” Q clarified.

Ruth and Harry looked at each other, eyebrows raised. 

When Q, Alec and James said nothing more Sir Harry cleared his throat and then addressed the proud little terrier in his arms who perked her ears up at the sound of her name.“Scarlett,” Harry said carefully, “You didn't hear that.”

~

Scarlett Pearce trotted up the steps of the underground station and made her way unobtrusively to a small dog flap in a nondescript grubby door. She waited as her collar triggered the electronic identification in the dog flap and let her in. Down the stairs she went, presenting herself at the low-level eye reader to open the double doors that led into the large, open lair of her new boss.

Behind his desk, Q looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Scarlett. Are you ready to get to work?”

Scarlett wagged her tail happily. “Excellent. Let me fetch your ID.”


End file.
